Alex Ullom says it's a "literal miracle" anyone is watching his new horror movie, It Ends. The 28-year-old director's debut feature hit theaters in August, but it's been in the works since 2021.
It Ends starts off like a road trip movie: Four friends are on a drive. Three of them have just graduated from college and they're helping a friend move.
But along the way, they realize they should've hit their turn a long time ago.
"There's a lot of horror movies where people drive through the woods to get to a cabin, and that's where the horror movie takes place," Ullom says. "In this one they don't even get to the cabin."
Instead, they're stuck driving on an endless road, worried they're dead or trapped in some kind of purgatory.
Ullom came up with the idea during what he describes as a "rough transition" from college to adulthood. He graduated from Florida State University in 2020, straight into the pandemic and a job market short on film opportunities.
Later, he realized what he was experiencing was something universal for his age.
"Typical structures that have existed for young people for years don't exist anymore," Ullom says. "Whether it [is] the nuclear family or owning a house or religious tent pole structures or nationalism."
Ullom's interest in transitional spaces — like the never-ending car ride in It Ends — has drawn comparisons to Backrooms, a film based on a 4chan post about the eerie back areas of an office building.
In the spring, Backrooms and the movie Obsession had audiences wondering whether we're in the midst of a Gen Z horror wave. Both films were made on relatively small budgets by young directors who got their start on YouTube.
Ullom is aware of the Backrooms parallels (he and director Kane Parsons are friends), but says it makes sense for his generation to be interested in these "liminal spaces."
"Liminal spaces are basically a transitional space. And it feels like the transitional space is now the forever space," Ullom says. "It's like okay, something's coming and we don't know if it's good or bad but like, hopefully I can pay rent."
But Ullom adds that some of the similarities between the two projects come down to a shared experience of growing up online.
"It's just a baked-in sensibility that is caused from bumping around on the internet at 13 and watching someone's head get cut off and then going to school and eating a Lunchable," he says.
That sensibility shows up throughout It Ends. In the movie's opening scenes, the foursome considers a viral debate: "50 hawks, dude with a gun, five gorillas, 10,000 rats. You're going to pick two to defend you and you're going to pick two to hunt you," one character tells the others.
Fittingly, Ullom forged his path to It Ends through digital spaces.
To make money after college, he was selling screenplays to strangers online for $1,000 each — and he was being paid to make memes. Once, he posted a meme online and a commenter said they would pay to see more of Ullom's work.
Ullom responded with his contact information.
That commenter, a professional magician, ended up being Ullom's first investor in It Ends, contributing $10,000. Ullom got another $10K from a YouTuber friend. A third contribution came from an investor Ullom met playing virtual reality poker.
"I found financing by begging rich people with disposable income … but also just sitting in VR poker lobbies to expose myself to rich people," Ullom wrote in a Reddit comment last month.
Armed with $30K from the internet, Ullom began production. He cast his four leads off Instagram, including Mitchell Cole, who plays Tyler. Unlike his friends, Tyler joined the Army instead of going to college. Now, he works as an HVAC technician.
That was the same job 32-year-old Cole had when he was cast in It Ends.
"There were some days, believe it or not, where I would get up early before I got to set and go help with my day job before," Cole says.
Ullom said he wanted each of his four characters to represent a different philosophical approach in the face of apparent meaninglessness. While some fans have called the film "nihilistic," Ullom doesn't identify with that worldview himself.
"The detachment that's so common in my generation is obviously a completely understandable way to process the … stuff that's going on right now," he says. "But I think the thing that … will actually pull all of us out of this is a level of, for lack of a better word, hanging out."
Hanging out is an important part of the film's production story too. Ullom made the movie with two close friends from college, producers Carrie Carusone and Evan Barber.
"This film really lives and dies by the kids that were out there making the film with me," Ullom says. "Truthfully, I was ready to upload the film on YouTube."
In 2025, It Ends premiered at South By Southwest. Later that year, it was picked up for distribution by NEON.
Now, it's in theaters nationwide.
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